I’m currently listening to the audiobook David & Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell. I had been meaning to read this for a while now, but now I know I’m reading it at the perfect time.
My whole life my mother always told me I remind her of David from the Bible. The young man who was viewed as the lowest, but was a brave and faithful shepherd that ended up as we all know slaying a great giant Goliath. Eventually, David grew to become a powerful King that ruled many.
In the book, Malcolm Gladwell talks about the underdog with odds stacked against him or her, but through it all ending up victorious. Gladwell’s stressor is that these great victories weren’t attained just by courage and chance, but because these underdogs weren’t conventional thinkers. They didn’t fight their battles following the battle rules already laid out for them. And greatest of all they used what would be typically considered as a disadvantage to their advantage. David was much smaller than Goliath but he stood to him anyway. Although it was insisted for him to protect himself with heavy armor he didn’t wear any to his battle. This made him much quicker and agile than Goliath. David wasn’t a trained warrior, he was a shepherd. But at times while needing to protect his herd he previously fought off big wild animals and learned a great skill with a slingshot to take down a huge predator. David’s upbringing was just the right training needed for the battle at hand. David used his so-called disadvantages for his ultimate advantage.
You have gone through the previous battles and adversities for a reason. Every battle in your life equips you and strengthens you for the next. Don’t look at your Goliath-sized battles with a linear view. Think unconventionally, use the skills that you do have, fight the battle in the way to makes your so-called “disadvantages” work to your advantage. Fight the adversity and slay your giants. You have all the skills needed already within you. I believe in you and so does God. Now go out today and conquer that giant.
-AxJ